Patchwork
by Hemlet
Summary: The Titans must deal with an opportunistic killer running amok in Jump City. The gruesome calling card of the murders quickly show the Titans that the murderer is without any scruples about whom he kills, and must be stopped as soon as possible.
1. Chapter 1

"Damn, those freaks leave a mess don't they?" A construction worker remarked loudly as he surveyed what had only hours before been a battlefield. Craters, fire damage, and annihilated fire hydrants spraying water into the air decorated what had once been a pristine street. The worker's musings earned him a few exasperated groans and a smack on the back of the head.

"Shut up Jeff. Those "freaks", as you put them, are why we get paid so much. Plus, if it weren't for them, there wouldn't be a city to clean up by this point." Another worker, Sal, called from across a particularly large, smouldering crater as she waved a cement truck into position. Nods and affirmative grunts circled around the construction site as the work began, moving rubble and setting up heavy equipment.

"I know that, but why do the bad guys always manage to run around long enough to blow something up? I'm not ungrateful, I just think they could be a little quicker on the draw, ya know?" Jeff hollered back as he began to chip away at larger chunks of debris with a jackhammer. As chips of cement began to fly up in the air, more workers began to arrive on scene to repair the water mains and assess the fire damage.

"Would you look at that? The whole wall's as good as gone...no, there's no sense in trying to even consider saving that building...what's that about the roof? Ahh shit" the foreman spoke into a walkie-talkie, looking at a row of buildings that ranged from being scorched to being almost completely demolished. The talkie garbled for a moment before a voice came through.

"Oi capt'n, are the porta-johns set up yet? That chilli I scarfed for lunch is kind of coming back with a vengeance."

The foreman pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath before answering. He knew it was Jeff; only Jeff had the nerve to call him "capt'n" and then proceed to throw any semblance of professionalism out the window. Breathing out and holding the talkie up to his mouth, the foreman's voice remained calm, despite sounding slightly strained.

"No Jeff, the porta-johns aren't set up yet. There's a restaurant farther down the street that was evacuated. I have no idea how, but aside from some broken windows it looks like it didn't get hit once. Go do your business there and then get back to work. We need more cement mixed up to fix the sidewalks." The foreman replied. As he clipped the talkie to his fluorescent vest, he spotted Jeff jogging to the aforementioned restaurant with very clear intention.

Going back to assessing the damage and issuing orders, Jeff was soon forgotten. As the day wore on, Jump City's construction crews began to show their practice at repairing the constantly assaulted streets, swiftly repairing what they could, getting a good start on larger jobs, and already sectioning off buildings and chunks of street that were beyond help. As the workday came to an end, Sal realized that neither she, nor anyone else, had seen Jeff since he had gone to do his business. Cursing under her breath, she began to make her way to the restaurant where Jeff had been directed.

"Dammit Jeff if you've been hiding in here this whole time I...Jeff? Hello?"

Sal stepped gingerly into the restaurant. The buzz and flickering of damaged fluorescent lights gave the restaurant a claustrophobic feel, causing Sal to grip her talkie nervously. There was a faint, unpleasant odour coming from somewhere by the washrooms, but it wasn't one Sal recognized. It was more of a sickly sweet stench, clinging to everything as it wafted about the restaurant. Flies buzzed around a particular spot in the kitchen, forming an undulating droning cloud. Outside the restaurant, down the street where the few remaining workers were making sure everything was set for the next morning's work, an ear splitting scream echoed down the street while frantic garbled sobbing completely took over the frequency of every workers talkie.

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Cyborg sighed as he leaned back into the overly large couch in the Titans common room, lazily flipping through the channels on TV. Beast Boy let out a similar sigh, munching on a tomato and lettuce sandwich as he flopped down next to Cyborg.

"You know, most people have bacon with their tomato and lettuce." Cyborg joked, eyeing the distinctly meatless snack Beast Boy had prepared for himself.

"The pigs will thank me dude. Hey, go back that show looked good!" Beast Boy jabbed his finger swiftly at the TV as Cyborg continued to flip through the channels. At around this point Raven entered the common room with a book in hand.

"Not a chance grass stain. I have the remote, and therefore I have the power." Cyborg smugly held the remote just out of arms reach as Beast Boy made a grab for it. Raven, who had just sat down and opened her book, let out an annoyed sigh as she promptly clapped the book shut and stood up again. Stalking over to the fighting pair, she promptly snatched the remote out of Cyborg's taunting grasp.

"I'm finishing this before it really starts." Raven's deadpan voice immediately stopped both Beast Boy's and Cyborg's emerging protests. She then calmly switched the TV to the local news channel. "You're watching this. I'm not putting up with another fight over the remote today." The empath warned as she sat back in her previous spot, book open and the remote on her lap. The newscasters' voice proceeded to drone on about the day's events, quickly boring Cyborg and Beast Boy. As Cyborg got up, announcing his intention to fine tune his car (a task which seemed to never be finished), he was stopped by mention of the Titans in the news.

_"The Teen Titans once again defeated the villain troupe known as the HIVE Five in a pitched street battle this morning. While the damage was extensive, it is believed that the damage would have been much worse had the Titans not intervened with the HIVE Five's wanton destruction of property. However, authorities were called to the scene again this evening as construction workers had found two bodies in a damaged restaurant. Gary Oplum, the foreman of the current worksite, had this to say." _Beast Boy was now glued to the television, and Raven had set down her book to listen. Cyborg returned to his seat on the couch and began to pay very close attention.

_"We were packing up for the night...and one of my staff had gone back to check on another worker, who had needed to use a restroom...and we heard this scream...and she was trying to say something over our walkie-talkies...and then her voice just cut off. We ran to check on her. That's when we...found them." _The construction worker was fighting back tears at this point, evidently horrified at what he and the other workers had found. At this point Robin and Starfire had entered the common room. Robin immediately took note of the concerned body language of his teammates, and began to pay attention to the TV. The newscaster came back on screen to continue the story.

_"While police have not released the victims' identities to the public, they have stated that the murders are very distinctive, and that they are doing everything in their power to apprehend the murderer. If you have any information that may help with this case, call our tip line at 1-800..."_ The TV abruptly shut off as Robin took the remote from Raven and hit the power button. Immediately, Robin began to quickly walk to the elevator door, the other Titans following suit.

"Titans, we've got some more work to do."

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**AN:** Well, there it is folks. The start of my first fic in years. I had others posted, but they were abandoned and deleted long ago after I deemed them to be crap-tastic. Anyways, any and all reviews are appreciated. A special thanks goes out to JMJones for reading this over and providing helpful insight before I posted it, as well as for the encouragement.


	2. Chapter 2

The Titans expected many things when they heard the word "murder" on the television. They expected bodies, police, forensics teams scouring the crime scene, and police asking questions. What they did not expect was to see several police being physically sick in nearby trashcans, or to see splatters of blood dripping from the ceiling. Robin had seen violence and dead bodies before, having grown up in Gotham City, but he had never seen a murder that had resulted in this kind of mess. Beast Boy couldn't go within ten feet of the restaurant entrance, the overpowering reek of death making his extra sensitive nose go haywire.

Chalk outlines of the bodies had been drawn side by side on the restaurant floor, and police examined large blood stains splattered on the walls. As Starfire floated in, she cringed at the sight before swallowing hard and summoning her Tamaranien resolve to keep from becoming as sick as the officers outside. Raven began to mutter her mantra under her breath as she hovered in close behind Starfire, doing her absolute best to retain her composure. Despite her best efforts, however, the streetlamps outside were quickly enveloped in a black aura before their lights shattered. Cyborg's human half of his face showed a grimace as he began to press a series of buttons on one arm. His red, cybernetic eye began to dully glow as he started to do a series of scans on the restaurant. Robin had waved over an investigator who had just finished taking pictures of the scene, and had led the man outside so that he and Beast Boy could figure out what police had gathered.

"How bad is it in there Robin? Also what's making that nasty smell?"

Beast Boy punctuated the latter question by plugging his nose with one hand and shaking his other hand towards the direction of the restaurant. Robin finished telling the policeman what he felt he needed to see before turning to Beast Boy.

"I don't think it could be much worse in there Beast Boy, and quite frankly I have no idea what that smell is."

Robin sighed as the officer continued to file through the many pictures he had taken on the digital camera, until finally coming to the pictures Robin had requested. Looking up from his camera and tapping Robin on the shoulder to regain his attention, the policemen looked uneasy.

"Are you really sure you want to see this Robin? I mean, it's far from pretty and..."

The officer was silenced by one of Robins' oh so famous glares before he quietly relinquished the camera. Robin looked at the picture viewer on the camera and grimaced. The officer was right, the pictures were far from pretty. Fighting down the urge to be sick or to look away, Robin began to analyze the pictures for clues, anything that could help the Titans and police find the killer. Beast Boy looked over to Robins shoulder and immediately regretted his curiosity. Robin was cycling through pictures of the victims bodies before they had been removed from the scene for their respective autopsies.

Even a passing glance at the bodies would show that there were a totally unnecessary amount of knife wounds. Vicious slashes and torn flesh hung about the victims in a ragged mess, and one of the victims was completely unrecognizable due to a caved in skull a mouth that had been torn asunder. As Robin cycled through through the pictures he raised his eyebrows suddenly.

"Beast Boy, look at this!" Robin shouted, having evidently found something amongst the pictures of carnage and gore.

"No way dude! I don't wanna see that!" Beast Boy jumped back a few feet from Robin, holding his hands up in front of his face and shaking his head.

"See what?" Raven's monotone interrupted as she floated up to Robin. Looking down at the picture Robin was so excited about, her eyebrow started to twitch violently before she muttered "gross". The policeman, wondering exactly what Robin had found, looked over the Boy Wonder's shoulder. Robin pointed to a specific spot on each victims' body.

"What do you see there?" Robin asked the officer, obviously seeing something that had been looked over.

"Something I'll be seeing tonight when I try to sleep. What's your point?" The policeman quipped before realization struck him. Staring at the picture he noticed a wound that was made very deliberately and carefully, a patch of skin that had been expertly cut and removed in a near perfect square on each of the victims bodies.

"Friends! Have we found anything pertaining to the capture of this most evil person?" Starfire floated up to crowd around Robin, Cyborg following close behind the alien girl.

"Robin! I think I found something." Cyborg said as he joined the group around Robin, who had just passed the camera back to the police officer.

"Same here Cy. You first, what'd you find?" Robin walked up to the large metal man, passing the camera back to the officer before crossing his arms and patiently waiting for Cyborg to say his piece.

"Bio-scans picked up a lot of dead skin, as in way more than there should be. There's practically a trail of the stuff leading out of the restaurant and into a nearby manhole. Also picked up traces of human waste, which means that whoever did this used the sewer to get here as well as away. What about you Rob?"

"Whoever did this stayed for a while after he killed them, long enough to take the time to cut himself a patch of skin. I'm not sure for what yet, but we'll find out soon enough. Titans, we're searching the sewers!" Robin announced, letting Cyborg lead everyone to the aforementioned manhole.

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With a grunt and a splash, the three male Titans hopped down into the sewers while the two women gently floated in, keeping out of the rancid smelling, waste filled water.

"Ewww...as if my nose hasn't been abused enough already." Beast Boy muttered, fighting down his gag reflex as he fell in behind the group. It didn't matter how often the Titans had been made to go gallivanting through the sewers, the reek of human waste and a hyper sensitive nose didn't mix well.

While Beast Boy continued to mutter about how his extra sensitive senses seemed to be a curse more often than a blessing, Starfire slowly flew next to the Boy Wonder, who trudged grimly through the green, sludgy waters.

"Robin, what troubles you? We are surely on the right path to capturing this heinous villain, and yet you seem to be...what is the expression...with your head in the clouds." Starfire gingerly laid a hand on Robins shoulder, trying to coax him out of his thoughts.

"Back at the restaurant, that smell kept bothering me. Even rotting food doesn't smell that bad, and even then the smell wouldn't fill the restaurant like it did. My next guess would be the bodies, but those people couldn't have been dead for more than a few hours before they were carted off. It doesn't add up." Robin rounded a corner into another, nearly identical sewage filled corridor and kept walking, the other Titans close behind. Before Starfire could offer her insight to Robins concern, the Titans were halted by a loud shushing sound from Raven.

"Do you hear that?" Raven whispered while every one stood stock still, listening intently for what Raven had heard. Beast Boy's ears twitched before he nodded, pointing his finger down the corridor the Titans were currently sloshing through. With unanimous nods, the Titans began to slowly continue their way through the sewers, slowly following the sound of happy, high pitched giggling. Cyborg's shoulder light flicked up and on as they continued down the path, the darkness of the tunnel overpowering the grate and manhole filtered light from street level. The giggling wasn't getting much louder as they went, and the smooth walls of the sewer caused the sound to echo and distort.

Eventually, the Titans came to a point where the tunnel split off into three separate tunnels. The giggling was closer now, but the echo in the sewers made it impossible to tell which tunnel was the source. After a swivel of the head and a brief look at each of the tunnels, Robin turned to his team and gave each of them a quick look, the expression on his face showing one of concentration. After another brief look at the available routes, Robin nodded as he came to a decision.

"Alright, if we're going to find whoever killed thos people, we need to split up. Cyborg and Starfire, you take the right tunnel. Beast Boy, you take the left. Raven and I will go down the middle. Whoever finds whoever's making that noise, call for backup." Robin whispered, pointing to each respective tunnel as he spoke. Beast Boy went slightly pale at the announcement of him going alone, but kept his mouth shut none the less. With a whispered "Titans go", the team split up into their assigned tunnels, and into the growing darkness of the sewers.

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Well, that's chapter two down. I'm getting a bit of traffic, but barely any reviews. I'm here to improve folks! If I'm buggering this up then let me know!


	3. Chapter 3

A green mouse scurried along the edge of the sewer tunnel, doing it's best to stay out of the omnipresent, foul smelling muck. Letting out a prolonged, hissing squeak that could only be called a sigh, Beast Boy mulled over his thoughts whilst trying to ignore the indiscernible sludge that was seeping between the toes of his mouse form.

Among those thoughts were questions, as to why he had been made to go alone after who could be the most wantonly violent murderer Jump City had ever encountered? Would one of the other Titans find this person first? What had he just stepped in and did he really want to know? To him, the sewer had seemed to have become ridiculously cramped and unbearably dark, with only just enough light being reflected in the tunnel to show the more watery bits of the sewer muck. The oppressive atmosphere and echoing, almost childish giggling that permeated the humid, stale air of the sewer made Beast Boy's stomach twist in apprehension.

Traversing through the dank tunnel, the giggling was definitely getting louder, with the occasional word and half-sentence worming it's way into the fits of laughter. The occasional raspy, manic voice bouncing along with tunnels with the giggling did nothing for Beast Boy's growing discomfort, causing his mouse fur to bush up and stand on end. Silently praying that one of the groups of two would find the murderer first, Beast Boy was glad to see sewer grates leading to street level make a second appearance, allowing filtered light from streetlamps and passing cars to illuminate the gloomy shadows of the tunnel. Feeling the twisting in his stomach relax a bit with the welcomed lighting, Beast Boy opted for the form of a spider, scurrying quietly along the slick walls.

"Yesyesyes-heHAHAhehe-new trophy hehe gotta fill up this spot here yesyesye-hehehehahaHA-almost there now, gonna make the little skank scream, gonna watch her face, gonna laughlaughlaugh when big bad daddy falls down dead yesyesyes" A raspy voice echoed gleefully, stopping Beast Boy dead in his tiny spider tracks. Quickly morphing back to his human form, Beast Boy fumbled to take out his communicator and call the leader of the Titans.

"Robin? I think-" The green teen was cut off by his ears picking up the slightly damp slapping of footsteps in sewer muck coming in his direction, the muttering and giggling getting louder by the moment.

"Hold that thought." Shutting his communicator as quickly and quietly as he could, Beast Boy desperately scanned the narrow tunnel for somewhere to hide. Thinking quickly, the green Titan transformed into a fly and hid himself on the dark ceiling of the tunnel.

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"Beast Boy? Beast Boy answer me, where are you? What happened? Beast Boy!" With a growl and frustrated glare at the now blank communicator screen, Robin pressed a few buttons on the round device. Not two seconds later, Starfire and Cyborg's faces appeared on the tiny screen.

"Cyborg, track down Beast Boy's last position and give us the coordinates. I think he may have run into trouble. Raven and I will meet you both there as soon as we can." With a pair of nods and a quick "gotcha" from Cyborg, Robin slapped his communicator shut and sighed. Raven, floating quietly behind the Titan's leader, rolled her eyes a bit.

"Beast Boy will be fine. He's a Titan, and perfectly capable of handling himself if things get out of control, despite the fact that he rarely acts like he could." The hooded girl, ever the voice of reason, lifted Robins spirits slightly. A beeping from their communicators indicated that Cyborg had found and sent Beast Boy's coordinates, causing the two Titans to check the GPS system on the devices before making their way to their green teammate.

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"There we go, coordinates sent. Hope the little grass stain's okay." Muttered Cyborg, the back lit screen on his arm going dark as he started to make his way back. Starfire flew beside her teammate, a puzzled expression on her face.

"Something is wrong, but I cannot put my foot on it." The floating girl scratched her head as she said this, concern filling her eyes.

"Um, I think you mean you can't put your finger on it, and relax; I'm sure everything's fine." Cyborg replied as he trudged through some particularly thick sewer muck. The squelching and sucking noises of his footsteps echoed loudly in the dark tunnels, causing Starfire's eyes to widen as she came to a realization.

"Friend, did we not do the splitting up so that we could find the source of the scary giggling?" The redhead's tone betrayed her anxiety to her half-robot friend.

"Yeah, why? What's wrong Star?" Cyborg turned his head to face Starfire directly, his human eyebrow raised in concern.

"If we came down here looking for the source of the scary giggling, then why is it so quiet?" Cyborg's human eye widened at Starfire's statement.

"We should probably try moving a bit faster." Cyborg's sonic cannon primed itself, ready to fire at a moments notice.

"Agreed, let us make haste." The Tameranian princess proceeded to lift Cyborg up by his arms before flying down the tunnel at breakneck speed.

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Beast Boy was shocked. The silhouetted figure, hunched slightly in his posture while staring intently at a particular sewer grate, had only moments before been giggling and talking to himself. Now he had become dead silent. As the man had approached the sewer grate from the end of the tunnel, the green Titan had watched him grow progressively quieter, until even his footsteps had grown hard to hear in the accumulated sewer waste. Still a fly, Beast Boy tried buzzing his way all over the tunnel, trying to get a better view of the man. Much to the teen's annoyance, however, the light filtering through the grate was too dim for him to make out any fine details other than the slight glint of a knife in the man's right hand.

Suddenly straightening, as if reacting to a timer only he could see or hear, the man quickly scrambled up the wall, grabbing onto the grate that led to street level. Planting his feet and pulling, Beast Boy watched the man pull the grate out of its place and into the sewer. Landing with a splash and an unpleasant sounding thud, Beast Boy was surprised to hear the man chuckle slightly, as if rather than a heavy grate and hard landing he had received a poke to the ribs and been tickled. Beast Boy then proceeded to watch the man get back on his feet and quickly scramble up the tunnel wall again, this time climbing out of the hole the grate once covered. As the man climbed onto street level, the green fly on the opposite tunnel wall caught a glimpse of filth covered bare feet turning and running down the street. Taking this opportunity to turn back into his green self, Beast Boy flicked his communicator out again and called Robin.

"Dude! I'm pretty sure I found him, the guy just headed back up to the street." Beast Boy whispered quickly into the communicator, looking at Robin's determined face through the screen. He could see that Robin and Raven were on the move, and that the Boy Wonder was running whilst talking to him.

"Right, stay put Beast Boy. We're all heading to your location as fast as we can." Robin replied as he rounded a bend in the tunnel he was in.

"What? Stay put? Dude I'm pretty sure he's already picked someone out! If we don't do something now someone else could die!" Beast Boy was frantic, hero and animal instincts kicking into high gear. The hero side of him was urging towards rescuing whichever poor soul happened to be the next victim, while the animal side was much more basic, indicating that he needed to defend his territory.

"Beast Boy, we need you to stay put so we can make sure this guy goes down. We don't know how much he's capable of yet." Robin's stern voice came through a bit haggard, as the Boy Wonder was sprinting for all he was worth towards Beast Boy. Robin's reasoning forced Beast Boy to be a little more thoughtful, knowing that his leader was probably right.

"Fine Rob, I'll-" The green teen was cut off by a shrill terrified scream from street level. Instincts kicking in, Beast Boy had just enough time to hear Robin shout his name through the communicator before turning into a raven and tearing out of the sewers through the formerly grate covered hole.

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OKAY. After 4 or 5 essays and a bunch of other personal crap no one cares about, as well as 6 (count them, 6) rewrites of this, I've finally deemed this chapter "good enough". I know the pace is a bit slow, and I'm going to work on picking it up a bit in the next few chapters. Overall though, I'm going to be taking my time with this. While I promise nothing, I'll try to make sure that it never takes that long to update again. On one last note, the spellcheck for OpenOffice appears to be for decoration purposes only, so while I try my best to spell correctly, mistakes are probably going to worm their way in here. Remember readers, I'm here to improve. Criticism where it's needed please.


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